1. Mormons A brief history about how the LDS Church started.

2. Class Objective Students will investigate the events leading up to the Mormons moving to Utah.

3. The Great Awakening After the Revolutionary War many states changed laws to be more accepting of different religions. Many religions were born from this movement away from traditional colonial Puritanism.

4. Joseph Smith Joseph Smith and his family lived in upstate New York. The Smith family was a common poor family that had been forced to move around the New England area looking for work. 1830 Joseph Smith produces the Book of Mormon and the LDS church is born.

5. The Mormon Church The LDS church spread rapidly in the first 10 years. The church moved to Ohio in 1830 because of the open land and the high conversion rates. Around this same time Smith had many followers start building a congregation in Independence Missouri.

6. Ohio/Missouri The Mormons were not known for making a lot of friends. Persecution of the Mormons began in Ohio and Missouri.

7. 6 Misunderstandings that led to conflict –1. The Mormons told others that their church was God’s only true church. They accepted Joseph Smith as a modern prophet who had talked to God and had translated the Book of Mormon as Scripture from ancient brass plates. This upset people of other religions, who said Joseph Smith made up the things he was saying.

8. –2. After the Mormons moved to Illinois, some church leaders secretly started living in polygamy. A man might be married to more than one wife. That way of living seemed very wrong to other people. –3. The Mormon belief in a gathering place meant that thousands of new settlers moved into a region. They often outnumbered their neighbors.

9. –4. In elections, all of the Mormons usually voted for the same people. Their neighbors were worried that Mormons could take control of state and local politics. –5. Slavery was an issue. Many of the Mormons were from England and the northern States. They were against slavery. Missouri settlers, however, were mainly from southern states. They had grown up with the idea that slavery was necessary and acceptable.

10. 6. The Mormons in Ohio at first lived a communal, or cooperative, economic lifestyle, which meant that everyone gave what they had to the church for the good of the group. This gave the church leaders a lot of power.

11. January 1 1834 after repeated mob raids, beatings, etc. The Mormons leave Missouri. They appealed to the Governor Dunklin and he rejected their complaints. On October 27, 1838 Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs enacts the Mormon extermination act.

12. Mormons in Illinois Fearing the extermination act many Mormons trudged through the snow and mud of winter to seek refuge in Illinois. The beleaguered Mormons bought a mosquito infested swamp to build their new settlement. Nauvoo

13. The population of Mormons in Illinois gave Joseph Smith and the church great power economically and politically. Polygamy starts among selected members of the church.

14. Problems in Illinois The Nauvoo Expositor was an anti- Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo. Smith and the Nauvoo City Council ordered the destruction of the newspaper. Because of this Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested and put into Carthage Jail. This is where a mob would assassinate Joseph.

16. The Aftermath With the death of their prophet and founder of the LDS Church the church was in a bad position. Under the leadership of Brigham Young, the new LDS prophet, the Mormons begin moving west to escape persecution.

17. Nauvoo Temple April 6, 1841 first corner stone laid. 1846 dedicated Burned to the ground on November 10 1848.